Overview
TeraScreen ("the app") connects to your Tesla over Bluetooth and shows vehicle status on your phone. Vehicle data is read directly over Bluetooth and is never sent to the developer's servers. This page explains what is kept on your device, what is never stored at all, and which third-party services are involved.
Data stored on your device
- Vehicle identification number (VIN): the VIN of the car you paired, used only to reconnect.
- Pairing state: whether a car has been paired.
- Encryption keys: the key pair used to talk to your car, held in the iOS Keychain or Android Keystore. It never leaves the device.
- Preferences: speed unit and other in-app settings.
- Ad dismissal date: the day you last dismissed ads.
- Subscription state: cached locally and verified by the App Store or Google Play. The developer never sees payment details.
- Trip records: start and end time, distance, top speed, and the battery level and range at the start and end of each trip, kept in a local database on the device and never uploaded.
- Charging records: the start and end time, battery level at each end, energy added and peak power of each charging session, kept in a local database on your device and never uploaded.
- Parking location: the coordinates where you last parked, kept on your device so you can find your way back; cleared when you drive off again or unpair, and never sent to the developer. Only when you tap “Walking directions” on the map page are the parking coordinates handed to your phone's maps app to plan the route (see “Third-party services” below).
Shown on screen but never stored
The following is displayed only while the app is running, and is neither written to storage nor uploaded: speed, gear position, battery level, estimated range, and the media track currently playing. (When a trip ends, some of these values are summarised into the trip record described above.)
Permissions
- Bluetooth: to connect to your car and exchange data. This is the app's core function.
- Location: the operating system requires location access to scan for nearby Bluetooth devices. While you use the app, location is also used to show GPS speed when the Bluetooth signal is unstable or the vehicle connection is interrupted, to show your position on the map, to pick the nearest tunnel and work out your direction of travel for tunnel traffic, and to note your coordinates when you park and walk away. GPS speed does not use your coordinates, and tunnel and direction coordinates are computed on the fly on your device; none of these are stored. The map is drawn by Google Maps (Android) or Apple Maps (iOS); when the map loads, the map service receives the area shown on screen, and on iOS your current location is sent to Apple Maps when a route is calculated during navigation (see “Third-party services” below). Parking coordinates are saved on your device (see “Data stored on your device” above). The app does not send your location to the developer or pass it to advertising, analytics or crash-reporting services (these services may still estimate a rough region from your IP address), and coordinates are not written to the diagnostic log.
- Internet: used to load ads, verify your subscription, fetch public tunnel traffic data, receive announcements and send crash reports.
- Notifications: to show announcements, and notifications such as vehicle alerts that the app generates on your device from what it reads over Bluetooth (these never pass through a server). You can turn them off at any time in system settings.
Third-party services
- Google AdMob: serves ads and may collect an advertising identifier (IDFA / AAID) and usage statistics. No ads appear while you are subscribed, or for the rest of the day after a rewarded ad.
- Firebase Crashlytics and Analytics: receive crash reports and basic usage statistics (device model, OS version, app version), plus an anonymous connection summary: counts and durations that describe how well the app stays connected to your car (for example, how often and for how long the connection drops). The connection summary contains no VIN, vehicle name, location, keys or vehicle data. All of this is used only to fix problems.
- Firebase Cloud Messaging: delivers app updates and important announcements. To reach your device, Firebase creates a push registration token for this installation of the app and keeps it with Google's messaging service, where it is used only to deliver notifications. The developer does not upload it to its own servers or link it to your VIN or vehicle data. Announcements are not addressed to individuals and contain no personal data. On Android 13 and later, the token is first created only after you allow notifications; on Android 8–12, where notifications are on by default, it is created as soon as you open the app (unless you have already turned its notifications off in system settings). If you later turn notifications off in system settings, announcements are no longer shown and the app deletes the token the next time you open it with a network connection; if Firebase refreshes the token when the app starts, the app deletes the refreshed token right away too. The token also stops working once the app is deleted.
- Google Maps and Apple Maps: the map page is drawn by Google Maps on Android and by Apple Maps on iOS. When the map loads, the map service receives the area shown on screen (in other words, roughly where you are). On iOS, while your car is navigating and the map page is open, the app sends your current location and the car's navigation destination to Apple Maps to calculate the route. Google or Apple handles this under its own privacy policy. When you tap “Walking directions”, the parking coordinates are handed to your phone's maps app to plan a walking route, and that app handles them under its own privacy policy.
- Public traffic data: tunnel traffic is fetched from a public traffic data source. Those requests contain no personal data and no coordinates.
Google's privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy
Apple's privacy policy: apple.com/legal/privacy
Subscriptions and payments
The app offers an optional monthly subscription that removes ads. All payments are handled by the Apple App Store or Google Play; the developer never accesses or stores your payment details. You can cancel at any time in your Apple ID or Google account settings.
Children's privacy
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Deleting your data
Choosing "unpair" in the app clears the VIN, the pairing state, the encryption keys and the parking location. Deleting the app removes everything stored locally, including trip and charging records. Because the data never leaves your device, there is nothing on our side to delete.
Please note: On Android, none of the app's data is included in cloud backup or copied during device-to-device transfer — pairing state, VIN, trip and charging records are all excluded. On iOS, if iCloud Backup is on, your trip and charging records and settings may be part of that backup and held by Apple under their own terms; you can exclude this app under Settings → iCloud → Manage Storage. Encryption keys never leave the device by design.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date shown at the top. For privacy questions, contact us through the developer contact page on the App Store or Google Play.